1663 - FELICE BOSELLI

FELICE BOSELLI Butcher with a Young Boy, c. 1725 Oil on canvas, 175x191 cm There is no doubt that this is a work by Boselli: a comparison with the identical subject in the Zauli Naldi Collection—now at the Civic Museum of Ferrara—is sufficient proof. That version is believed to predate this one, dating from around 1720–30. The drawn brushstrokes linger delightfully on the birds’ feathers or the dog’s fur, yet they by no means neglect the rich effects of color, especially in certain areas; see, in this regard, the two geese depicted in the paintings from the Uffizi and the Steffenoni Collection (catalog entries 397–398), rendered with smeared impasto—in some places even applied with the fingers—and subtle variations of light blues and pinks against the whites. The village scene with hints of vegetation corresponds to the painting in the Bizzi Collection, while the tub of boiling water is the same one already found in the “Veal and Mushroom Dish” from the Lorenzelli Collection. The young man’s gentle features are unusual—perhaps “angelicized” in a quest for aristocratic approval that Boselli previously seemed to disregard—borrowed from none other than Correggio (it is, in fact, the face of one of the ephebes adorning the sub-arches of the dome of Parma Cathedral). Provenance: Formerly in the Franco Steffanoni Collection, Bergamo Bibliography: F. Arisi, Felice Boselli, Still-Life Painter, PC., 1973, p. 288 ff.